CANADA STOCKS-TSX rises on commodities but RIM drags

Reuters Staff

3 Min Read

* TSX up 0.14 percent at 12,256.74

* Materials lead index higher

* RIM drops 2.2 percent

By Claire Sibonney

TORONTO, April 26 (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index was up for a sixth straight session on Monday morning as mining shares got a boost from rallying metal prices and from robust earnings from U.S. heavy-machinery maker Capterpillar Inc (CAT.N), but technology shares were weak.

As gold and copper prices firmed, Caterpillar raised its full-year profit forecast, and positive economic sentiment from the outlook spilled over on to the resource-loaded Toronto index. [MET/L] [ID:nN26212283]

"That's got to be terrific news for Canadian mining and infrastructure companies," said Barry Schwartz, vice-president and portfolio manager at Baskin Financial Services.

"If you run a huge mine, the last thing you want to do is spend money on new equipment if you think the world is not going to need your products. If you're buying new equipment you must think things are recovering and really turning around."

Shares of Research In Motion RIM.TO, however, dropped 2.2 percent to C$69.06 as the market feared it has no product to compete effectively with the Apple (AAPL.O) iPhone, even though the BlackBerry maker said it is launching variations of two existing models and hinted that much-anticipated announcements on a new operating system and browser are on the way. [ID:nN26178007]

"RIM does not have a competing product for the retail space and that is very very negative for anyone who's buying the stock today," Schwartz said.

"So RIM has to be worried that Apple is going to steal away its market share and there's just nothing they can do."